293 
The appendix to each volume con- 
tains many curious papers: such as an 
act for consolidating all the acts relative 
to slaves; Mr. Quarrell’s answer to the 
chairman of the Maroonccmmittee ; and 
HISTORY, POLITICS, AND STATISTICS. 
various interesting papers of correspoti- 
dence. The whole work is curious, inter- 
esting, instructive ; but less distinguish- 
ed for the moral taste of its sentiments, 
than for the sincerity of its narrations. 
GENERAL POLITICS. 
Art. XVII. An Essay on the Principles of Populations or, a View of its past and 
_ present Effects on human Happiness. By V. R. Marruus, Fellow of Jesus College, 
Cambridge. 4to. pp. 610. 
THE public opinion has already been 
pronounced upon the merits of this Es- 
say. Mr. Malthus embarked upon the 
tide just at the happy moment, at the 
flood when it leads on to fortune, and 
such was the unnatural and unwholesome 
state of our moral and political atmo- 
sphere, that he appeared like a philoso- 
pher, as he would have appeared like a 
giant had he walked abroad in a mirage. 
No wise man had ever doubted, and 
no christian had ever disbelieved, that 
the general condition of mankind could 
be improved, till the unhappy conse- 
quences of the French revolution shook 
the liberties and morals of Europe. This 
amelioration was rendered probable to 
the good by reason, and certain by faith ; 
they religiously expected what they be- 
nevolently desired. Tor these rational 
and. righteous hopes, men who had no 
faith and little reason, substituted wild 
speculations how men might live for 
ever; and these speculations were com- 
bated by those who had just reason 
enough to expose the absurdity of their 
antagonists, and just faith enough to 
raise an outcry against their infidelity. 
Mr. Malthus’s object is to refute the 
opinion of the perfectibility of man, in 
ether words, to prove that no’ material 
improvement can ever be expected in the 
state of society. 
« In an inquiry concerning the future im- 
provement of society, the mode of conduct- 
ing the subject which naturally presents it- 
self, is ; 
*¢1. An investigation of the causes that 
have hitherto impeded the progress of man- 
kind towards happiness ; and 
«© 2. An examination into the probability 
of the total dr partial removal of these causes 
in future. 
«To enter fully into this question, and to 
‘enumerate all the causes that have hitherto 
influenced human improvement, would be 
much bevond the power of an individual. 
The ‘principal object of the present essay is 
to exantine the effects of one gicat catise in- 
timately united with the very nature of man, 
which, though it has been co stantly ancb 
powerfully operating simee the commences 
ment of society, has been little noticed by 
the writers who have treated this subject. ' 
The facts which establish the existence of 
this cause have, indeed, been repeatedly 
stated and acknowledged; but its natural 
and necessary effects have been almost totally 
overlooked ; though probably among these 
eflects may be reckoned a very considerable 
portion of that vice and misery, and of that 
unequal distribution of the bounties of nature, 
which it has been the unceasing object of 
the enlightened philanthropist in all ages to 
correct. 
«< The cause to which IJ allude, is the con- 
stant tendency in all animated life to in- 
crease beyond the nourishmertt prepared for 
it.” 
«* Taking the whole earth instead of this. 
island, emigration would of course be ex- 
cluded ; and supposing the present popula- 
tion equal to a bas millions, the hu- 
man species would inerease as the numbers 
1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, and subsis- 
tence as 1, 2, 8, 4, 5; 6, 7, 8, 9. . In two 
centuries the population would be to the 
means of subsistence as 256 tog; in three 
centuries as 4090 to 13, and in two thou- 
sand years the difference would be almost in- 
calculable.” 
This last paragraph is the sum and 
substance of eight quarto pages ; and in 
fact, the whole’ work is written in the 
same ratio: viz. eight lines of sense and 
substance to 8 x 30240 lines of verbi- 
age and senseless repetition; and even 
of these eight lines, all the pomp of nu- 
merals and ratios might have. been 
cashiered by substituting a proposition 
which no one in his senses would con- 
sider as other than axiomatic. Suppose 
a. matried couple to have six children, 
(not half the number which they would 
have if you suppose ai// checks to popu- 
lation removed) and suppose all their 
posterity to marry, and each coupie to 
increase in the same proportion; and it 
is evident ou the slightest reflection, 
that ina given number of generations, 
their posterity; would want standing 
room. (That it must be so, the rule of 
multiplication would enable a child to 
demonstrate, and a school-boy who has 
advanced in arithmetic as far as com. 
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